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Zambian languages

Zambia has 10 indigenous languages (or language groups) spoken as a mother tongue by more than 1% of the population, four of which are each spoken by large segments of the population:

Bemba, Lozi, Nyanja, Tonga.

Bemba is widely used by non-native-speakers as a lingua franca in urban areas, especially on the Copperbelt. The full name of this language is Ichi-Bemba.

Nyanja (or Chi-Nyanja) is widely used by non-native-speakers as a lingua franca in urban areas, especially in the capital city of Lusaka.This language is also known as Chi-Chewa, especially in Zambia's Eastern Province and in Malawi, where it has the status of national language.

The other indigenous Zambian language groups are:

Kaonde, Lunda, Luvale, Mambwe-Namwanga, Nsenga,Tumbuka.

Each of these groups includes a number of dialects with fairly high mutual intelligibity.

The definitive source for research on Zambian languages is:

Ohannessian, S.I. & Kashoki, M.E. (Eds.) (1978) Language in Zambia.

London : International African Institute/University of Zambia.

This is currently out of print, but is being reprinted for reissue later in 2008 by the UNZA Press.

A more accessible summary publication is:

Banda, F. (1998). The classification of Languages in Zambia and Malawi.